Monday, May 20, 2013

ZIMBABWE: Men not accepting circumcision

Resistance hinders circumcision programme

The government set an ambitious target to circumcise three million
men by the end of 2015, in its bid to reduce HIV infections in the
country.

But to date, only 8% of the target population has been reached, less than two years before the deadline.

United Nations Joint Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAids) country
director, Tatiana Shomiliana, said there was need to re-strategise so
that more young people can be mobilised for the circumcision programme.

She said while resources had been availed to circumcise over 100 000
males in 2012 alone, far less than half the target was achieved.

“An analysis is going on. We are trying to understand why. Do we target wrong people? Do we message wrongly?” Shomiliana said.

She said wrong packaging of messages was contributing to the poor
response to the programme. Shomiliana cited the message “Be a winner,
get circumcised” which she said does not clearly bring out what it is
that one would be winning by getting circumcised.